A reel-up for a paper machine typically includes a pair of upper rails for supporting a stock of reeling drums each provided with one or more paper reel cores, and a pair of lower rails below the upper rails and having an upstream end proximate a reeling device operable to reel a web of paper onto a reeling drum and to roll a finished reel of paper along the lower rails to a downstream end of the reel-up. The reel-up usually includes a device for lowering a reeling drum from the upper rails into engagement with the reeling device, whereupon the paper web is reeled onto the reeling drum until the reel reaches a predetermined size. At that point, the finished paper reel is disengaged from the reeling device and is rolled along the lower rails to a downstream end of the reel-up.
Some reel-ups also include one or more devices for removing a reeling drum from the finished paper reel and for inserting the removed reeling drum into one or more new empty cores so that the reeling drum can be placed back into the stock of reeling drums on the upper rails.
The finished reel of paper leaving the reel-up is usually called a jumbo roll. This may either consist of a single reel with a breadth corresponding to the full machine breadth, or of several reels, the paper web being divided into two or more web sections which are reeled individually onto a like number of cores installed on a common reeling drum. To achieve a continuous production of paper reels, empty reeling drums are continually supplied from a stock of drums. This stock of drums is arranged in close connection to the surface winding drum at the upstream end of the reel-up and at a level just above the production line of the reel-up in order to save space. The reeling drums are lowered from the stock of drums with the aid the lowering device to a surface winding drum of the reel-up where the process of reeling the paper web to finished reel of paper again commences.
The stock of drums must be replenished as the reeling drums are used in the reel-up. In conventional reels-up a manual system is still used to a great extent to return the reeling drum removed from the finished paper reel to the stock of reeling drums. This is achieved by pulling or pressing the reeling drum out of the paper reel with the aid of a drum moving device arranged at the downstream end of the reel-up. The reeling drum thus removed is then provided with one or more new cores and returned to the stock of drums. The cores have comparatively very large diameter as well as a length usually reaching several meters and cannot therefore be moved manually to any great extent. They must therefore be transported to the reel-up with the aid of an overhead crane or some other suitable transport device, such as a truck. The reeling drum provided with a core is lifted by an overhead crane to the drum stock situated above the reel-up, a machine operator first manually applying the gripping means of the crane on the reeling drum selected and accompanying the reeling drum along its transport distance until it can be placed in the correct position in the drum stock. Alternatively, a second machine operator may be positioned up by the drum stock to receive and disengage the raised reeling drum. It will be readily understood that the manual manipulation of the reeling drums described above is both time-consuming and laborious, and thus expensive. Furthermore, all manual work in or close to the paper machine during operation including transport of heavy objects such as reeling drums suspended in overhead cranes, always entails risks for the operator. Since handling of the reeling drums takes place inside the machinery hall, the machine operators whose job it is to look after the manual manipulation of the reeling drums are subjected to potential accident risks, noise, and other stress situations. It is therefore highly desirable to reduce manual handling of the reeling drums.
One object of the present invention is therefore to provide an improved reel-up which enables manual handling of the reeling drums to be greatly reduced.